A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left.
Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Council By-elections

There were four this week, with one held on Tuesday. Turnout was relatively good in all the wards except the Walsall one, despite the timing.

I suppose the thing I worry about is that you can have a genuinely popular candidate with a personal vote which distorts the party vote.

For example, if you take Camden's Highgate ward one Green topped the 2010 poll fairly easily and then the three Labour candidates beat the other two greens with many votes to spare.

Your method makes it look like the Greens are more popular than Labour there when the reality is although they are both the top two parties the party vote clearly goes to Labour while the personal vote goes Cllr Maya de Souza (who everyone seems to know and like).

More to the point I suspect all the methods have drawbacks (as you point out) and the key thing is to be aware of them and not blindly follow the numbers.

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About Me

Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.